1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to supports for cabinets and more particularly to movable supports for relatively heavy cabinets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is frequently necessary to move appliances such as refrigerators for cleaning and other purposes. Early appliance models used glide bolts at each corner to support the cabinet, each bolt having a large flat head for engaging the floor. The floor materials were typically of a hardwood or hard linoleum surface and the glide bolts could slide over the floor surface relatively easily for movement of the cabinets. Appliances have developed to include larger and heavier cabinets which cannot be slidably moved without great effort and probable damage to the flooring surfaces. Presently, many large appliance cabinets have a mobility feature which includes cylindrical rollers to support the cabinets and to allow the cabinets to roll over the supporting floor surface. The rollers provide rolling friction rather than sliding friction and facilitate movement of the heavy cabinets. However, the contact area of the rollers is limited to the tangential line contact of each roller with the floor, thereby transmitting the entire weight of the cabinet to a few small areas. The resulting high unit forces exerted over an extended period of time can cause the rollers to penetrate into the floor covering surface. This greatly impairs the mobility of the cabinet and more importantly causes permanent damage to the floor covering of the supporting surface. This problem has been aggravated by the increased use of decorative carpeting and soft textured tile in locations where heavy appliances are required to be movably located. The carpeted and soft textured tile surfaces are easily deformed by heavy loads supported on relatively small bearing areas.
The prior art has recognized the problem and various approaches have been directed toward a solution. One such approach was directed to a yieldable caster which could resiliently deform under a heavy load to provide a flattened bottom surface to somewhat increase the bearing area of the caster. The increased bearing area is limited to the area projected by the caster's width and its diameter and requires a continuous reshaping of the caster during movement. The application of a heavy load over an extended period of time may cause a permanent set on the bottom surface of such a caster, thereby preventing the desired deformation and rotation of the caster during subsequent attempted movement of the appliance.
Another approach to the problem is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,644,691 -- Pohle and is directed to a roller device for moving heavy loads. The roller device comprises an endless roller track self-contained within a housing. The track is comprised of a multiplicity of hollow cylindrical rollers, each having a central shaft. The ends of adjacent shafts are linked to form an endless track. The roller device is adapted to be temporarily positioned beneath a load to facilitate movement of the load and is removed after the load is in the desired location. The objects of the Pohle patent are concerned only with the problem of moving a load and do not consider the floor covering surface over which the load is moved. The roller track distributes the weight of the load through the multiplicity of rollers, each in tangential line contact with the surface of the floor, and not over a continuous load-bearing area. Moreover, the sharp metallic edges of the individual cylindrical rollers may cut into any sloping or irregular floor surfaces. The roller device is too large and expensive to be considered as a permanent part of or attachment to the object being moved.
By this invention, the disadvantages and limitations of the prior art are overcome and a movable tracked support having a large bearing area is provided for a cabinet to minimize depressions in soft floor coverings and to facilitate movement of the cabinet.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to provide a tracked support having a large load-bearing area for movably supporting a cabinet to distribute the load and thereby minimize depressions in a floor covering surface.
It is another object of this invention to provide a tracked support having a large load-bearing area to distribute the load and thereby facilitate movement of a cabinet with relative ease over a supporting surface.
It is another object of the invention to provide a tracked support which can support a heavy cabinet for extended periods of time without adversely affecting subsequent movement of the cabinet thereby retaining its function and usefulness over a long period of time.
It is still a further object of this invention to provide a tracked support which combines a large load-bearing area with an ease of vertical adjustment of the cabinet to compensate for sloping surfaces.